I caught Route 66 in St. Louis, swung down through Oklahoma City, then blew west as hard as I could till I got to Santa Fe. Then I started camping on the side of the road, or just outside of town, in the parts where there weren’t enough people to hassle you too much about being pulled over for the night. I had learned that lesson the hard way. Don’t attract the ire of the local Karen’s; they’ll call cops on you. This lifestyle was working well once I got the hang of it, and kept me from wasting funds on hotels or even campsites. So food and gas were my main concerns, and coffee, lots of coffee. At some point I headed south, off the Route, and rolled into Scottsdale, which is a kind of suburb of Phoenix. I got in before noon, had been driving through the night, so I pulled over at the first decent looking coffee shop I spotted. This was where I would meet Jane.
I walked in, looked around to see a few people already seated, always a good sign. I ordered a cortado from the top knot behind the counter, who handed the cup to a serious looking barista to begin making. As I stepped back to wait, a dishwater blonde in a tan, open knit sweater sidled up to the counter and said, “I’ll have one of the same.” She sort of jostled her shoulders back and forth as she said it, causing the sweater to slip further off her left shoulder. There were words there. Starting at her shoulder blade, written in the blue that outlines tattoos was: “An old s…”
I was not sure quite why, but this got me very interested. My cock engorged just a bit, and I tried to make out the words in the next line I could see: “To liv…”
Just then she finished paying and bounced over to stand at the end of the counter. She raised both hands and started swaying to the music playing in the background. The girl just looked joyous! The music was… uh… it took me a moment because this was an elevator version of the song without lyrics. Bobby McGee! Yeah! She continued to move, eyes closed, and almost imperceptibly mouthing words as she swayed to the sound. She had slightly olive skin, all over from what I could tell through that porous sweater. Her linen pants didn’t reveal as much, they were loose at the crotch and thigh but caught in at the ankle and with a tie holding them up at the waist. Her face was smooth, drawn in by high cheekbones and with a slight uptilt to her nose. That light brown/blonde hair ran just to her shoulders. Just then she stooped as part of the slow dance she was doing. She stood before a window through which the sun was pouring in. For just a moment as she was bent over I caught a glimpse of the full form of her breast through that incredible sweater, highlighted by the sun behind it. It was tipped with a comparatively long nipple, certainly more than I expected given the size of her breast. Then it was gone as she raised back up, and I could feel saliva building in the corners of my mouth.
Her eyes blinked open as the song ended. Looking directly at me she whispered, “Following me.”
I reared back a little, realizing that I had pursued her over to the window. We were the only people standing there.
“Uh, no… I mean… um–”
“It wasn’t a question, just an observation.”
“I’m sorry to stare… I uh–”
“So you were following, and staring.”
“No… I mean… ”
I decided that I better stop stammering and be direct. Then I hit on a brilliant counterpoint.
“Well you did just follow me and order my exact drink, so I guess I followed you over to the window.”
At this, one corner of her mouth upturned, so I decided to follow up on my directness.
“And frankly it would be very hard not to stare, with you doing a little dance to Janis like that!”
Now the other corner upturned, and I was saved by, “Cortado for Jane!”
She moved to the counter, and I uttered, “Hey, I had one of those too?!”
She turned back to me, one cortado in each hand. They were on a tray, with a shot of sparkling water next to the espresso. She gestured to a table and started gliding to it. I recovered myself and managed to beat her there just in time to draw back her chair, seeing as how I wasn’t carrying anything.
“Thanks,” she said, sitting and sliding both trays onto the table.
I sat opposite. After a moment, I felt like something needed to be said.
“So… Jane. I guess I know your name then.”
“Assuming I gave them my real name, but Jane’s fine for now.”
I sipped my shot. Her eyes narrowed into a suspicious expression. She tilted her head and asked, “Your name wouldn’t be Richard, by chance?”
“I guess I wasn’t the only one not paying attention when they called out my order!”
She looked at me blankly, then I caught on.
“Oh, hah hah, I get it. See Dick go into the coffee shop. See Jane follow Dick and steal his drink idea.”
“See Jane order her own goddamned drink, that she has ordered countless times without Dick around! See Jane innocently dance in the window. See Dick go over and stare at Jane so hard his eyes bulge out of his head!”
“See Dick… I mean, hey! It was impossible not to stare… at somebody who… looks like you.”
She raised her left brow.
“I mean, have you ever seen what you look like with the sun behind you?”
“I can’t say that I have. I mean I see this body every day in the mirror, but…” she looked over at the window and the sun streaming through it.
“It was spectacular,” I stated.
“I guess I can see… wait, why did you follow me over there in the first place?”
“Maybe to stand and wait for my drink? Wait, OK, If I’m being honest, it was because I was trying to read your tattoo. I… I noticed it when you first walked up. I caught the ‘An old’ part. I got intrigued and I was just trying to read the rest.”
“Well at least that’s not creepy at all!”
Before I could try to defend myself, I noticed her chin draw up. Taking this as a queue I said, “Yeah, totally not creepy to want to read a girl’s tattoo that is hidden under her sweater.”
“You should at least see if you can get her out of her sweater first.”
“It’s the polite thing to do.”
We both snickered, then we both started to laugh, really laugh. It lasted for some time during which numerous patrons started to stare at us.
Once we both recovered, Jane said, “You know, tattoos are very serious things to the people who have them.”